Surprise! The Donald is Not Running: The Bad PR Trump Card

May 17, 2011 Leave a comment

News flash!  Donald Trump is not running for president in 2012.  NBC pushed Trump to make a decision and reality TV won out over president of theUnited States.  It was a month of bad timing all the way around for the Donald.  First, he positioned himself as leading the birther campaign charge, which wasn’t the best PR move in the world; then President Obama goes and ruins the birther media frenzy by first releasing the long form of his birth certificate and second, finding and killing the most wanted terrorist in the world, Osama bin Laden.

If Donald Trump seriously did decide to run for president in 2012, he had more than hurt any chances of being taken as a true contender, but few believed that was really his intention.  As he certainly seemed to prove with his decision, media exposure was his ultimate aim.  Even before the birther fiasco, there have always been more potential minefields out there for Trump than for most candidates.  He is now a Republican, but in the past he has been both a Democrat and a member of the Reform Party; in a book he wrote in 2000 he praisedCanada’s single payer health-care system.  Not a stance that would give him much traction in the GOP.  His affiliation with the Miss USA Contest would have most likely raised some Tea Party eyebrows and who knows what reporters and political opponents could have unearthed when digging into his casino and real estate dealings.

Did Trump seriously want to open himself up to such scrutiny?  I doubt it, But he did find a way to keep himself and his TV show in the media, positioning himself as a may-be residential contender was certainly one way to keep himself in the spotlight.  The real story is that regardless how big of a non-story he is, the media runs when he beckons.

Trump has been here before and this approach has served him well. It certainly helps his TV ratings, feeds his need of the spotlight and keeps him in the entertainment, financial and political outlets.  But Trump made a poor media bet when he chose to take up the mantle of the birther movement. 

Trump challenged President Obama’s place of birth on the “Today” show and on CNN’s “State of the Union,” despite the overwhelming evidence that the president was born in theUSA.   Trump talked about the issue in interview after interview and reportedly met with anArizonastate lawmaker sponsoring a so-called “birther” bill.

“The reasonIhave a little doubt, just a little, is because he grew up and nobody knew him,” Trump said on “Good Morning America.”  Palin praised Trump’s questions, although she stated the she doesn’t think the end result will show that Obama was not born in theUnited States.

Whereas jumping on the birther bandwagon offered Trump quite a bit of media coverage, it was a poor PR choice. It’s true that the hardcore birthers and others of that ilk embraced him, but that stance marginalized him in the mainstream.  By pandering to that segment of society, Donald Trump once again positioned himself more as a reality show host than a serious presidential contender, which in fact is what he is. 

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2011

Filed under Media, obama, Politics, publicity, Reality Tv Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The Shirley Sherrod Debacle

July 26, 2010 Leave a comment

Last week gave us the political PR version of how haste can do a heck of a lot more harm than simply making waste.  Early on it looked like the Democrats were having a good week media-wise.  The Tea Party kicked out activist Mark Williams after the controversy stirred up by his attack on the NAACP.  Sarah Palin had her “refute” episodes and President Barack Obama signed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection financial reform bill at the Ronald Reagan Building.  It seemed like a week made in PR heaven for the Democrats.  Then the Shirley Sherrod story broke and obliterated every other news story out there.  Sherrod was forced to resign from her job based on incomplete and misleading reports about a speech she gave in March.

The controversy began after conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart posted a portion of the speech in which Sherrod spoke of not offering her full help to a white farmer. The initial video indicated that the incident Sherrod mentioned occurred when she worked for the Agriculture Department.  The news media jumped on the story.  The video seemed to be everywhere instantaneously.  Yet the impression it left the view with was a false one.  The incident took place decades before Sherrod joined the department, and her speech in its full, unedited form made the point that people should move beyond race.

The edited Sherrod video initially brought condemnation from the NAACP, which later retracted its statement and apologized to Sherrod after the context became clear.  Sherrod has also received an apology for her firing from Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.  A call from President Obama and a new job offer from the administration.  She has yet to receive an apology from Breitbart and it doesn’t look like that’s coming anytime soon  Breitbart told CNN’s “Anderson Cooper: 360″ on Thursday that he saw no reason to apologize: “What would warrant an apology? … I’m not the one who threw her under the bus.”

In a week where the White House had hoped the focus would have been on the signing of the Wall Street Reform Bill, all eyes and ears were focused on the Sherrod fiasco.   In its haste to deal with what looked like an embarrassing and volatile situation the media and the administration ignored the source, took no time to investigate the story and with a knee jerk reaction created a media fiasco that could have been avoided.

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2010

Filed under news, Politics, PR Tagged with , , , , , , , , ,

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